MITCHELL ON THE FAILED BAHAMAR DEVELOPER

Fred Mitchell speaking in the House of Assembly on Thursday December 2025 told the House that the failed developer of Bahamar could not claim that he was in any way vindicated in the case of Bahamar.  He recounted that the failed developer had not been able to pay the mortgage on the property on two occasions. Each time the government of The Bahamas intervened to help him out his problems. His response was to file for bankruptcy in the United Sates. The US courts had no jurisdiction and the company was put into liquation in The Bahamas and the assets sold to the present developer who has made a success of it. Yet the headlines in the local press claimed that the failed developer had been vindicated because he won a judgment in the courts in New York. We support Mr. Mitchell’s view that this is nonsense.

Here is what Mr. Mitchell said in his own words:

“I got to tell you what incensed me the other day, because I thought this was a dead matter was this headline about somebody was vindicated: “vindicated, what?”

“You know, when you don’t pay your bills, the bank forecloses on the mortgage right? Simple, you don’t pay the bank forecloses. And it didn’t happen once, it happened twice. And the government had to intervene twice under the Progressive Liberal Party to rescue a failed development.

“We stuck with it and made sure that it went, and then all this narrative going far and wide about what the PLP did and pressured this one, and not what, all of this is just absolute rubbish. Absolute rubbish and I say this Madam Speaker, when you saw the latest headline? The most important thing that I read in that statement that appeared in the newspapers was this with: no admission of liability.

“With no admission of liability.

“And we know how this works, those of us who are lawyers, you know. You know, you got no case. So the best thing you do is you try and apply pressure by bringing a case. And then you cause those to have to settle it because of the nuisance value.  

“I have no idea what happened…I stay out of that. All I say, is the most important line in the case was no admission of liability. And today, we have 2 [other] hotels that are operating in the country by the investors who were involved in the construction of the hotel.

“The [Bahamar] hotel is functioning as a proper facility for tourists in the country and tens of thousands of American citizens have been guests in the hotel and have been pleased at the service they receive from the Bahamians who work there and I want to thank therefore, on this occasion, our tourist officials who help promote the facility. I want to thank the Bahamians who work there.”